


Escape

by Pearlislove



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Not Canon Compliant - Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28598619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pearlislove/pseuds/Pearlislove
Summary: Wrote this over 2 years ago in High School and never posted it. My first ever FBAWTFT fanfic, way before all I have published so far. Therefore not canon-compliant with movie 2. Which, lets face it, I won't comply with anyway because it is stinking shit.
Relationships: Queenie Goldstein & Tina Goldstein, Queenie Goldstein/Jacob Kowalski, Tina Goldstein/Newt Scamander
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this over 2 years ago in High School and never posted it. My first ever FBAWTFT fanfic, way before all I have published so far. Therefore not canon-compliant with movie 2. Which, lets face it, I won't comply with anyway because it is stinking shit.

**A/N: Because I promised I wouldn’t let Tina and Queenie and FBWTFT get to me but it did… It so, so did**

“You’re here to see the baby, how lovely. Please do come in.” Even before Newt or Tina has said anything, Queenie knows what they want. She always knows. Being the skilled Legilimens she was, reading people's thoughts was to her easier than reading books. And a lot more fun at times, too. Not that their errand there that day in particular would have been hard to guess either way, what with her and Jacob having had a little baby only a short three weeks earlier.

_ I swear that baby is going to be one hell of a little charmer one day, if it's anything like it's mother! _

Newt's thoughts drift through the room and reach her ears without her really reaching out for them, and she can feel herself cracking up, a huge smile on her face that was already there but now is bigger. “Oh, but Newt, I think your quite the charmer yourself!” She wink, her sister giving her a suspicious look and Jacob blinking at her - making her think she should try to explain legilimency a bit better.

Newt's face turns to the floorboards, a mixture of embarrassment and shame at having his thoughts read cursing through his mind. As he starre, an uneasy silence grow in the room. 

Finally, when it's at a point of almost being oppressive, Jacob decides to intervene. He invites Newt down to the bakery to taste some of his new pastry creations, asking if he could get some tips about new creatures he bake, and to everyone’s relief Newt immediately accepts.

Queenie breath out, and so does Tina. Both of them are thankful for Jacob being so quick-thinking, helping them escape the unintentional awkwardness. 

Yet, in her mind, Queenie can’t help but think it was her fault for reading his thoughts and commenting on them outloud. She add him to the list of people whose thoughts she should not comment on and silently berates herself for not figuring it out so much earlier.

_ Newt does have a point though, my sis is beautiful and so will the baby be, surely . _

Queenie hears Tina’s thoughts clear as day, and the context of it makes her smile. She want to comment on it, but knows that her sister dislikes when she reads her thoughts, too, even if she still never shielded them. So instead, she just smile and pretends she doesn’t know. Some little part of her fear that if she did, her sister would eventually start using occlumency to keep her out, and that alone scares Queenie more than anything else.

“So, you want to see the little misses?” After a moment she clap her hands together and smile, joyous mood returning and for some reason feeling like bouncing on the spot. She didn’t. While Tina knew that she was silly and immature, she still wanted to try to act with a little grace. It didn’t change the fact that she felt happy enough to bounce, though, and if her sister had been able to sense her thoughts the way she did, Queenie was convinced that Tina’s senses would be overflowing with feelings of love and adoration for the baaby.

Queenie Goldstein liked a lot of things in life, as was rather apparent by her cheery attitude, but there was two things she loved above all: Popertina Goldstein (Kowalski), her sister and her baby.

When she told Jacob what she wanted to name their daughter, she had been sure he would fight her over the baby's name, insisting that they’d name it after his grandmother instead. He had surprised both himself and her when he didn’t. Instead, he’d just leaned forward and first kissed the baby, then her, whispering softly that ‘Next time I decide’, and she smiled and laughed. ‘Fair enough’, she said, and they’d both been happy, so happy.

“It’s in here.” Quickly, Queenie pointS to the door on her left with her wand, removing the locking spell that took more than  _ Alohomora  _ to unlock and allowing her sister entry. It shouldn't be necessary to lock the door, especially not with magic, and in a normal household it wouldn’t, but considering that they were currently hiding from MACUSA, pretending as though their little family weren’t, they couldn't be too careful. Anything to keep their baby safe.

_ I’m about to meet my niece for the first time… oh god please don't let me screw this up! _

Sensing her sister’s fear at the back of her head, she quickly grabbed said sister by the arm and dragged her into the room. “Come on, Tina, it's going to be fun. The baby's looking forward to meeting you.”

As soon as they're half-way into the room, Queenie drop Tina's arm, instead walking over to the crib in the corner and scooping up the still sleeping baby, pulling the purple quilt along with it and wrapping it around its tiny body to keep it warm.

“The baby?” Tina asks, sounding a little confused. “Have you and Jacob still not decided on a name for her?”

_ I should have a talk with my brother-in-law about letting my sister decide things that she want, such as the name of her daughter… _

“We decided about a week ago, actually. Jacob was very reasonable about it. I just wanted to wait to tell you until you could hold her and see her for yourself.” She smile, one of her typical bright, starry-eyed smiles that Jacob always said made him fall in love, and move to stand next to her sister. “Do you want to hold her?” She offers the baby to her hesitant big sister, who looked at the sleeping child like she's never seen anything like it before.

“Yes, I’d love to.” Tina smile, carefully wrapping her arms around the little bundle of purple blanket, smiling an unusually tender and loving smile as it slowly opened its eyes. For a moment, Queenie feared it was going to start screaming, but it doesn't, and Tina continues to marvel at the never ending beauty of it.

_ Oh god it's so tiny _ ,  _ how can such a tiny thing exist?  _

Queenie can't help but laugh softly at the last observation, and so does her sister, well aware that they both knew exactly what they were laughing at. Tina had never tried to block her mind from her sister, not ever, and if she wanted her to keep out she would tell her so. It had led to them sharing a bond deep enough that Queenie didn’t always have to read her mind to know what she was thinking. It had also made then a lot more comfortable around each other than many other siblings. 

_ It almost looks like… almost look like me _

“She really does remind me of you, Tina. With Jacob’s brown eyes and everything, she perfectly reflects your baby pictures. That's why I chose to name her Popertina.” She whispers the last part, barely loud enough for her sister to hear, and hopes that she will be pleased.

“You named her...after me?” She doesn’t sound angry or sad, but even without reading thoughts Queenie can tell there is something upset in her mind, she can see it reflect in her sister’s eyes like it always did.

“Yes, We...I...it was fitting. You said she looked like you yourself.” Queenie can't help the worry and sadness that she knows is being reflected in her own gaze, too, but the invasion of thoughts that she doesn't want to hear is rapidly making her more and more upset as she fails to filter them out. “Don’t you like it?”

_ Why would she name her after me _

_ Of all the name she could have chosen it had to be Popertina _

_ Why couldn't she let Jacob chose this time  _

_ Does she know I'm leaving? Did Newt tell her and Jacob? Is that why? Because she doesn’t want to leave and she expects me to stay? _

The last thought is like a slap to the face, hard and painful, and without even thinking of it, she pulls the baby away from her sister's arms, acting almost aggressive and quickly putting it back in the crib. The baby wails at the manhandling, but she doesn't care.

“Queenie, I love it! What …” Tina can barely begin to ask her question, staring down at her empty arms where the baby had been resting just moments earlier, when she is overtaken by shock as her sister gave her the angriest stare she had ever seen her sister give.

“You’re leaving me!” The intense, unfamiliar anger quickly faded into sadness as she averted her gaze from her sister, blue eyes coming to rest on the wailing baby instead and she gently started to rock the crib. Hot, salt tears gather in her eyes, slowly dripping down her cheeks, rolling off her chin and landing on the purple quilt, creating a small pattern of dark spots on the pastel fabric. “You promised you’d never do that…”

Tina doesn't say anything, but when Queenie reaches out she can hear her thoughts, a clear mental image occupying all of Tina’s thought space as she tries to process her sister’s actions. 

Queenie can see the five-year old version of herself clinging to her sister as they stood in front of the shelter, the place they were taken to after their parents died. They stayed there until they started Ilvermorny. At the time, Tina was eight and only three years away from starting the famous school of magic, while Queenie was five and got double that time before she could start. 

Tina was not afraid of anything, taking command and guiding them inside their temporary home, but Queenie was confused and terrified and blindly following the older girl. 

Kneeling before her terrified little sister on the steps of that old building, Tina promised Queenie to always be with her. To never leave her alone, no matter what.

Queenie has used to believe her.

“I promised that, and I'm keeping my promise.” Tina take three long steps across the room and comes up behind her sister, wrapping her arms around her waist and holding her tight from behind, squeezing her back against her abdomen to give both of them some kind of comfort. “I’m always here for you, my little princess.”

She sounds so sincere, so safe and comforting, and Queenie only sobs harder at this, because she’d heard her sister's thoughts, and she knows that she is lying. For the first time, Tina is lying to her, and for the first time, she doesn't like Tina calling her her little princess. With the last of her quickly dwindling strength, she manages to push Tina away. “You’re lying! I know you are! I heard what you thought and I know what you were thinking!  _ You are going to leave me _ !”

She is screaming, angry and upset like she's never been before, and she can feel the whole world come crashing down on her as her control of her ability is suddenly slipping. She can feel all the thoughts and feelings of the people in the bakery downstairs and the street outside slipping into her mind space, and it is too much.

“Queenie!” 

She can hear Tina calling for her, trying to pull her back from the edge before she falls, but it results in her pushing her instead. 

Suddenly Queenie is falling freely, sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss filled with thoughts and feelings that is smoldering her even though they’re not even hers.

Physically, her body gives up. Her knees give in and throw her to the floor, her eyes closed and her hands grip at her head, covering her ears as if it could drown out the thoughts, the feelings, the  _ noise  _ inside her brain that is growing bigger and bigger.

She doesn't know how long she is gone - how long she is ‘overwhelmed’, as the teachers at Ilvermorny had used to call it for lack of a better word. The only thing she knows is that when she comes to it, she is lying in a fetal position on the floor, curled up to make herself as small as she possibly can. She can feel that she is absolutely drained, and when she finally gathers the strength to look up from the floor - to lift her head even the slightest bit, her sister is kneeling beside her with her baby in her arms.

“Teenie…” Queenie hasn't called her sister ‘Teenie’ since she was a very small child, but she is  _ so  _ tired and it’s the first thing that appears in her mind, so she let it slip out. With more effort than it should take, she stretches out an aching arm, trying to touch Tina’s arm but coming to rest on her knee. 

“Schh, it's okay. I’m sorry for upsetting you.” Her sister’s voice is quiet and calming, but she can’t hide the worry on her face. Her hand is running up and down Queenie’s leg soothingly, careful not to drop the baby she's balancing on her other arm, and Queenie wonders what it is that got her so worried. If it’s something else than her own half-conscious self. “I should have just told you what I meant, not let you second guess my thoughts. It wasn’t fair.”

“I’m sorry for passing out.” Queenie knows her sister will tell her not to worry about it, but she can’t help but feel a bit embarrassed as she fully realises what happened. Normally, she was good at filtering what she wanted and didn’t want to hear, and only take in the thoughts of three or four people at most, but when she got upset, she could sometimes lose control, and suddenly she’d be taking in the thoughts and feelings of a much larger number of people instead. It would lead to her passing out as her mind was out under too much pressure and asked to handle too much information. 

She hadn’t had an incident like that since her days at Ilvermorny. 

“It’s okay, it was my fault anyway. Need a hand?” Tina offers a hand, the arm earlier rubbing soothingly at Queenie’s leg instead grabbing onto her arm and helping drag her into sitting position on the floor, her limbs and her back aching from the unfamiliar pose.

“How long was I out?” She had to ask, she had been out for days at the worst times when she got overwhelmed. And while she doubts it’s that bad, she can tell from the aching and stiffness of her body that it’s more than just a few minutes.

“About an hour, I think. Jacob and Newt haven’t come by yet. The baby got fussy so I picked her up, not really sure what else you do when babies are fussy.” As if on cue, the tiny baby in Tina’s arms starts crying, and Queenie has to bite her lip hard to not laugh at her sister’s terrified expression. She really had no idea how to care for a child, and yet she’d been looking after her since she was five.

“Here, give her to me. She’s probably hungry, I haven’t fed her since this morning.” Being ever so careful with the crying child, she transfers it from her sister's arms into her own, opening up the top buttons of her blouse and putting the baby against her breast to allow it to eat. When the cries quickly die out, she smile, staring lovingly at her little daughter for a few moments before finally diverting her gaze back to her sister. “Now tell me what you meant.” 

“What?” Tina looks absolutely confused, like she doesn’t know what she is referring too.

“You said you weren’t leaving.” The lump in her throat is growing bigger, she is swallowing over and over again and trying not to cry, but it’s  _ so very hard _ when she knows that she can’t do this without her sister. Without her, She can’t live. She loved her daughter and her boyfriend and herself, but without her sister it was all impossible to imagine. Little Popertina seems to notice her mother’s distress, or maybe she is just fussy, and as Queenie wait for a response she starts to whine. Normally her mother would give her all the attention and love she could ask for when she did, but now she is too distracted to do much more than rock her against her bosom. “You can’t leave me, Teenie. I need you.”

Another moment of silence passed, Queenie fighting the tears and Tina just looking at her. Queenie can’t tell what she’s thinking, can’t get her abilities to work when she really want to, but she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t like the silence and the hurt and the pain that is stacked up like a wall between them. “Please…” She bega. She really begs. She has never begged for anything in her entire life, because good girls don’t beg, nor do motherless, but now she begs for her sister not to walk out of her life.

“I’m moving to London with Newt.” Suddenly, it’s out, and Tina is wrapping her arms around her sister's shoulders and hugging her tight and though she’s still anxious and in mental agony over how far out of control everything transpired, she is smiling. “We’re getting married.”

“You’re getting married in London.” Of all the scenarios Queenie imagined, this was not even close to any of them, and for the moment she is stunned, but the moment pasa fast enough and then she is instead filled with joy and wonder and it is making her smile brighter than she had all day. “You’re moving to London and marrying Newt! Congratulations!”

She is using her free arm to hug her sister back, and she feels so excited. “I’m gonna miss you a lot of course, but oh… it's going to be so exciting!” She want to clap her hands and bounce, and if she hadn’t had a baby pressed against her chest, still eating, she might have. “Can’t wait to help you plan that wedding! You will let me, won't you?”

Tina smile, and nods. “Of course. I was actually thinking...well I was going to suggest it when Jacob was here too, but I thought maybe it could be a double wedding? You already got the baby, it's about time you made it official!” She laughs, and Queenie laughs too, but the laughter quickly died out because none of them really mean it.

“No-Majes and Witches can't get married, you know that Tina. Even if we would love to, we can't make it official.” She smile sadly, glancing down at the baby in her arms. It's no longer eating, and has fallen asleep instead.

“You could, if you moved to London too.” Tina’s been thinking of this since the moment Queenie fell for Jacob, and now that she was moving there with Newt, it felt more of a good idea than ever, especially considering the recent addition to their family. She just hopes Queenie agreed. “I’m sure Jacob could open a bakery in London, too, and you wouldn't have to worry about MACUSA. The British Ministry of magic allows No-Maj and Witches or Wizards to have relationships.”

“But...New York is our home.” Queenie knows that Tina only want what's best for her, and as much as she hated to admit it she had thought about it too.

“Is it? Look around you. Is this what you want?” Tina is suddenly serious, squeezing her sister's leg tight with her hand. This is not her kind big sister Tina who is speaking, it's the mother-Tina who would send her letters telling her to do homework, to eat her vegetables and to behave all the way from Ilvermorny while she was there and Queenie was not. “Denying your love for the man who stole your heart from the very moment you met out of fear of losing him? Keeping your daughter looked up in her room out of fear of someone taking her from you?”

“I...I don’t know…” She looks away from her sister, doesn't want her to see the fear and pain in her eyes. “I love Jacob…”

Of course she loved Jacob, but was this what she wanted for her and Jacob? For their daughter?

As much as they both tried not to be jealous, they hated seeing people blatantly hit on the other, thinking they were single, but didn’t have the courage to do to do anything out of fear that they’d reveal their relationship. 

Though she never told Tina or Jacob about it, she knew what the regular customers in the bakery thought of her. A whore with an illegitimate child, living off a good man's kindness, was what they saw her as, feeling grossed out and offended by her mere presence there in the bakery, doing a good and respectable job. 

She couldn’t prove them wrong.

She looked around her, at the room. It's painted in the loveliest shade of yellow that she picked out herself, but there are no windows, and the door got a spell that doesn't allow it to open from either side unless it's her wand casting the unlocking spell. They took so many precautions, were so very paranoid, because they knew that a single mistake, a single off-hand comment from either of them, could send their entire world crashing at their feet.

Her entire life, Queenie had gotten compliments for her happiness, for her cheerfulness, for her optimism. They thought it would never fault, her positive attitude, but she knew so much better. It did falter, sometimes, when no one was looking.

Tina was looking at her and it was still faltering right now.

This room didn’t make her happy, hiding her relationship didn’t make her happy, this way of life didn’t make her happy.

It wasn’t what she wanted for her and Jacob and their child.

“This doesn't make me happy, Teenie.” She looks at her sister, begging, miserable like the five year old child in the room with all the other children who didn’t have anywhere else to go, seeking comfort in the only thing she  _ did  _ have. She is looking for her ‘mommy’ Tina, want her to tell her what to do to be happy. 

Her arms tighten around her baby as Tina, normally so sparse with physical contact and emotions, rope her into another hug and hold her tight. She had always been there for Queenie, and now was not different. She held her for the longest time, and then, she smiled.

“You always said that a child should have a window to look out of growing up.” She is laughing and gesturing for the solid wall opposite them, where there should have been a window, but weren’t, and it’s almost as if she can read Queenie’s thoughts and know it is the thing she hates the very most about her daughter's room.

Maybe, being her sister, she didn’t need to read her thoughts to know.

“In London we could have a window, couldn’t we? Me and Jacob could have a window in our baby’s bedroom.” She says it quietly, thoughtfully. What she say is not what she means, not at all, yet somehow it is and she just hopes her sister understands her thoughts when she’s not even sure she does herself.

“You could. You could have as many windows as you wanted, more than you’d even need.” Tina doesn’t say what she mean either, because what Queenie ment was  _ we could be safe _ , and what Tina means is  _ you would always be safe _ , and somehow it all feels decided, even though she hasn’t talked to Jacob about it yet, and hadn’t had more than half an hour to consider it, but she just knows that it is happening. It has to happen, Jacob has to agree, because Queenie has to be happy. Yet...

“What if Jacob doesn’t want to move? He got his...I mean our bakery here. We got a life here.” Suddenly she is detangling from her sister's arms, standing up and walking across the room on a whim, feeling as though she can’t sit still anymore. She feels stiff from sitting still for so long but can’t really bring herself to care about that as she lower her long since sleeping baby into the crib, putting a blanket over her and buttoning her shirt. “I can’t just take Popertina and leave.”

Carefully, she put her hand against her baby’s soft little cheek, moving it upwards and running it over her little head. She loved her child more than anything, and was willing to do whatever it took to keep her safe, but she couldn’t leave Jacob. She just couldn’t.

“I never said you were.” Her sister’s voice is level-headed and reasonable, her mothering voice that she uses when it's not a sister Queenie need, and she relaxes, dragging herself over to the wall instead and running her hand over the yellow painted wall. What she wouldn’t give to have a window there, to be able to look out at the world outside.“Just talk to him. Be reasonable. He is as scared as you, Queenie, if not more. He barely even knows what's chasing him, doesn't understand why. I’m sure he’d like to be happy and carefree as much as you.”

Queenie smiled, feeling relieved and comforted. Making a spur of the moment decision, she hugged her sister tight. “Thank you, Tina.”


End file.
